Kino have apparently done a deal for over 100 films with Studiocanal. Will be interesting to see what they release as Studiocanal has apparently done deals with two other US companies. The first title Kino are releasing is Dead of Night (1945) and they have some Ealing Studio product coming.

I was under the impression that Lionsgate held the US rights for Studiocanal. Anyway, SC have an enormous catalogue some expect some gems in 2019 from them.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

I've pre-order the Bergman box set as well as John Ford's Stagecoach & Andrei Rublev. I already have the British Blu Ray release of the Tarkovksy film which is the director's preferred cut. But the Criterion is the complete version which will never turn up intact in the UK under the current censorship laws regarding cruelty to animals.

Another great release (non-criterion) coming up soon both in the U.S.(via Twilight Time) & U.K.(via Eureka/Masters of Cinema) is John Schlesinger's Yanks (1979). One of those films that was a commercial failure on its initial cinema release its nice to see it getting a Blu Ray release for a chance for younger people to see the film. If I recall correctly the films critical reception was mixed.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

Just an update on the Criterion Blu Ray release of the almost complete works of Ingmar Bergman - they are going to be Region Free. Great news for those who only stick to releases within their respective regions.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

Jacques Rivette's The Nun (1966) (French title La Religieuse) finally makes it English language Blu Ray debut (I don't think it was every released on DVD) in the UK on 17 September. It is easily his most assessable film and was remade only a few years ago with Isabelle Huppert, though to be fair it wasn't really a remake as it was really simply just another (lesser) adaptation of the novel.

The possible bad news is that the restoration may have been undertaken by someone with a liking for teal and recently there has been some controversy about the correct colour coding for older films. Anyone who browses the Criterion forum or Blu Ray.com will have seen the discussions in relation to Midnight Cowboy & Bull Durham. Someone of one of those sites had seen a big screen presentation of the restoration of Rivette's The Nun and stated that is was teal.

If the rumours about The Nun turn out to be true it will be very disappointing. I haven't seen the film since the 1980's and the print I saw was already turning pink. A few years ago Gaumont released a number of Louis Malle films that had been restored. There was some grumbling about them on the Blu Ray sites but having seen most of them I was more than happy with the restorations. The exception was Atlantic City which was teal. I don't ever recall it looking like that back in 1981 at the cinema, or on VHS soon after and the American DVD edition certainly isn't teal, it has a honey tone as I recall it had always had. Anyway, just have to wait and see what The Nun looks like but this tendency towards teal is putting me off upgrading titles that have had their colour tinkered with in such way. One doesn't have much choice though if that is all that is available.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

Criterion's DVD/Blu-Ray of Costa-Gavras' The Confession is out of print. State of Siege, from the same licensor, is still in print, so it may be due to them losing rights to one of the supplements rather than the film itself.

Also, Arrow has a pretty good sale going. I probably won't get anything this time though--kind of tapped out on spending between the Criterion sale and then some back-to-school supplies I'm buying for my classroom (if I wait on supply money, I'll be waiting until Christmas...on a related note, if anyone wants to make a donation to help out some kids at an under-funded, low-income school, hit me up!).

I dipped into the B&N Criterion sale for the first time and picked up a whole lot of upgrades, basically stuff that I only had on DVD: Female Trouble, Naked, Rushmore, The Naked Lunch, Tokyo Drifter & A Christmas Take.

Also took advantage of the sale at Twilight Time and grabbed Husbands & Wives and The Crimson Kimono for $15 and added Private Property, Manhattan Murder Mystery & Auto Focus to that order.

Also worth noting is that Arrow in the US are only releasing the Blu Ray Distant Voice, Still Lives and the BFI are will be doing the same for the UK market. Hopefully more earlier Davies films will follow.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

Precious Doll wrote: I haven't purchased any of the Criterion Blu Ray releases over the last few years because I was hoping for a comprehensive set and here it is!

I just bought The VIrgin Spring in the Barnes & Noble sale. I've got a few of the others, but I'll probably give them to a friend or donate them to the local library (which I've never done before, but might be a good way to cull my collection and get rid of duplicates without going through the trouble of selling on eBay).

Probably THE release of the year. Will be interesting to see if Criterion release a similar boxset in the UK. The Touch & The Magic Flute are already out via BFI, Artificial Eye released a small box set five earlier films in 2012 all of which expect for It Rains on Our Love, are included in the U.S. set.

I understand the Artificial Eye no longer hold the UK rights. The long defunct Tartan hold the UK rights to most of the other Bergman titles, so we will see what happens there. Actually a UK edition could snag Face to Face, expect that I understand no suitable HD master exists. I real shame we could get the original TV version of that one.

Something of a stroke of luck that I only have purchased one Bergman film on Blu Ray which was The Touch but sold it because my second viewing was little better than my first. I haven't purchased any of the Criterion Blu Ray releases over the last few years because I was hoping for a comprehensive set and here it is!

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

Yesterday Criterion announced a box set of several Bergman films. There was speculation that they would do something for his centennial, but this announcement is beyond what was expecting. Most were expecting that it would be like the Kurosawa set, which had the movies without any extra features, and had a higher retail price. It's not everything he ever made--Face to Face is the most notable film missing, and a couple of his late TV dramas aren't here--but it's pretty great overview of his career, and several of these movies have never had a proper video release in the States. And at a retail of $299.99, you'll be able to get it on release day for half price from Barnes & Noble, so it's a no-brainer.

Ingmar Bergman, the visionary storyteller who startled generations of art-house moviegoers with his stark intensity and naked pursuit of the most profound metaphysical questions, was born on July 14, 1918. In honor of the legendary Swedish filmmaker's one hundredth birthday, the Criterion Collection is launching an array of releases and programming to celebrate this incomparable body of work.

At the heart of this centennial celebration is Ingmar Bergman's Cinema, a thirty-Blu-ray collector's set, the most comprehensive collection of Bergman's work ever released on home video. Organized as a film festival-with opening and closing nights bookending double features and centerpieces-this selection spans six decades and thirty-nine films, including such celebrated classics as The Seventh Seal, Persona, and Fanny and Alexander alongside previously unavailable works like Dreams, The Rite, and Brink of Life. Accompanied by a 248-page book with essays on each program, as well as by more than thirty hours of supplemental features, Ingmar Bergman's Cinema traces themes and images across Bergman's career, blazing trails through the films for longtime fans and newcomers alike.

Additionally, Criterion will be releasing a series of Blu-ray editions of some of Bergman's most essential films, beginning with upgrades of The Virgin Spring (now available) and Scenes from a Marriage (available September 4) and continuing with new editions of Shame and The Magic Flute, as well as a Blu-ray upgrade of the box set A Film Trilogy by Ingmar Bergman: "Through a Glass Darkly," "Winter Light," and "The Silence."

As previously announced, the Criterion Channel on FilmStruck will be celebrating the month of Bergman's birthday with a variety of programming, including a new entry in the original series Creative Marriages on the filmmaker's intimate collaboration with actor Liv Ullmann, and a series of Friday-night double features that pair some of Bergman's most influential works with the films they've inspired.

BOX SET CONTENT

OPENING NIGHT:

Smiles of a Summer Night (1955)

Crisis (1946)A Ship to India (1947)

Wild Strawberries (1957)

To Joy (1950)Summer Interlude (1951)

Summer with Monika (1953)

Dreams (1955)A Lesson in Love (1954)

CENTERPIECE ONE:

Scenes from a Marriage- Television version (1973) | U.S. theatrical version (1974) Saraband (2003)

From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)Hour of the Wolf (1968)

Shame (1968)The Passion of Anna (1969)

Fårö Document (1970)Fårö Document 1979 (1979)

Through a Glass Darkly (1961)Winter Light (1963)The Silence (1963)

The Virgin Spring (1960)

CENTERPIECE TWO:

The Seventh Seal (1957)

The Devil's Eye (1960)All These Women (1964)

Sawdust and Tinsel (1953)The Rite (1969)

The Magician (1958)

The Magic Flute (1975)After the Rehearsal (1984)

The Touch (1971)The Serpent's Egg (1977)

CENTERPIECE THREE:

Persona (1966)

Thirst (1949)Port of Call (1948)

Cries and Whispers (1972)

Waiting Women (1952)Brink of Life (1958)

Autumn Sonata (1978)

CLOSING NIGHT:

Fanny and Alexander- Television version (1983) | Theatrical version (1982)

SPECIAL FEATURES AND TECHNICAL SPECSThirty-nine films, including eighteen never before released by CriterionDigital restorations, including a new 4K restoration of The Seventh Seal and new 2K restorations of Shame, The Touch, Waiting Women, and The Serpent's Egg, among many others, with uncompressed monaural and stereo soundtracksIntroductions to eleven of the films by director Ingmar BergmanSix audio commentaries featuring film scholars Peter Cowie and Birgitta SteeneOver five hours of interviews with BergmanInterviews with many of Bergman's key collaborators, including actors Bibi Andersson, Harriet Andersson, Ingrid Bergman, Erland Josephson, Gunnel Lindblom, Liv Ullmann, and Max von Sydow and cinematographer Sven NykvistDaniel and Karin's Face, two rarely seen documentary shorts by BergmanDocumentaries about the making of Autumn Sonata, Fanny and Alexander, The Magic Flute, The Serpent's Egg, The Touch, and Winter LightExtensive programs about Bergman's life and work, including Bergman Island, . . . But Film Is My Mistress, Laterna Magica, Liv & Ingmar, and othersBehind-the-scenes footage, video essays, trailers, stills galleries, and morePLUS: A lavishly illustrated 248-page book, featuring essays on the films by critics, scholars, and authors including Cowie, Alexander Chee, Molly Haskell, Karan Mahajan, Fernanda Solórzano, and many others; selections from Bergman's own writing and remarks on his work; and detailed guides to the feature films and supplements included in the set.

I wasn't sure I would buy the Woodfall set as I already have the Criterion sets of Tom Jones and A Taste of Honey but the set was reasonable enough to spend the money to get the other six films. I waited until Monday to order as I wanted Nothing Like a Dame to be released to order both in the same package. I received them yesterday thanks to DHL global mail express.

I love the packaging, was able to break up the set and squeeze the other six films between other Blu-rays alphabetically - I only had to remove one other Blu-ray to make room as two of the films had to fit on the same shelf, would have been too much of a squeeze otherwise.

I watched Saturday Night and Sunday Morning plus the audio interview with Albert Finney from 1982 and the on-camera interview with Shirley Anne Field from 2009. Started on The Entertainer. It looks great.

I also watched Nothing Like a Dame, which was apparently produced for British TV but was released theatrically in an extended version. The extendted version is only 80 minutes long - the old gals seem to have tired easily. Not a lot of new information, but the funniest tidbit was Maggie Smith's revelation about Edith Evans' teeth: "Dame Edith had two sets of teeth, one for speaking and one for eating. She kept the set she wasn't using in her dressing room. One day after filming (Young Cassidy ?), she was hungry, but too tired to go to her dressing room, so she sent someone to fetch her eating teeth."

“‎Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” - Voltaire

I received my Woodfall boxset last Tuesday as expected. I flicked through the the discs and am most impressed. I haven't seen most of the films since the 1980s at repertory cinemas and already owned five of the films on DVD and funnily enough all of them were 4x3 letter boxed, so it nice to have them in anamorphic widescreen.

I have the Melbourne Film Festival in August and then off to Europe of 6 weeks during Sep/Oct and have so many discs that are high on my 'want to view' list. I hope to fit these in during July.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One

Have not had a chance to watch anything yet, but my Woodfall set arrived on Thursday. It's a great-looking package, and I have to give BBC credit for the really sturdy box, and also glad that each film got its own (thin) case, unlike Indicator's Boettecher set or Arrow's Rohmer set, where each case housed two movies, with a reversible sleeve.

Can't wait to dig in and watch several of these. I still haven't touched my Rohmer set either (and I've had it since April), so I need to get on that one too.

dws1982 wrote:Got an e-mail yesterday that my Woodall set has shipped. Hopefully it comes as fast as the Boetticher set did.

My Woodall if due next Tuesday. Really looking forward to visiting those film, most which I haven't seen since the 1980s.

I also received the Hirokazu Koreeda films on Blu Ray from Maborosi to Still Walking inclusive. Very impressed with the lot of them and most of the films have never looked better. I'll still keep my Criterion Still Walking because the Japanese one is scant on extras and don't have English subtitles for those anyway.

“Those Koreans. They’re so suspicious, you know, ever since Hiroshima.” Constance Langdon (Jessica Lange) from American Horror Story: Season One